


Lavenders and Reds, Your Lips on Mine; But It's Not Right

by xxELF21xx



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman and Robin (Comics), Super Sons (Comics), Superman (Comics), Superman - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Bruce Wayne is a Good Dad, Character Death, Damian Wayne is Robin, Emotions, Flames are welcome, Hanahaki Disease, Heavy Angst, I actually started crying at the end, M/M, Minor Clark Kent/Lois Lane, Nike this is for you, Red Hood may have had Hanahaki DIsease, The Author Regrets Nothing, i'm never doing this again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-28
Updated: 2017-07-28
Packaged: 2018-12-08 02:21:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11636946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xxELF21xx/pseuds/xxELF21xx
Summary: There is a crack on the wall when Jon had accidentally lost control of his super strength. There is a dorky Batman keychain hanging on his phone that Jon had insisted he used. There is a boy, lonely and lost, sitting in a room that makes his heart ache and burn.





	Lavenders and Reds, Your Lips on Mine; But It's Not Right

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Pomfry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pomfry/gifts).
  * Inspired by [petals and blood](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11501061) by [Pomfry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pomfry/pseuds/Pomfry). 



> Hanahaki disease: a fictional (emphasis on fictional) disease, often used in fanfictions, where the victim regurgitates and coughs up flower petals when they suffer from unrequited love. The illness can only be cured through surgical removal, however any existing romantic feelings are also removed with the infection. If the flower is not removed or the love remains unrequited before it blooms; the victim dies.

Damian remembers vividly, the way the petals waft in the breeze, the reds that stain the floor, the way bright blue eyes avert his own in favour of shame. 

He remembers his best friend, the one person that refused to bend and break under his gaze. He remembers Jonathan Kent, blue eyes, bright grin, and a big heart. 

He remembers feeling his entire body freezing up in fury and  _shock,_ he remembers how torn he'd been. Jonathan Kent fell in love, and he fell too hard. Yet, that love never bore any fruits, for the flower is threatening to bloom soon. He tries to persuade the younger idiot to remove the flower, but Kent would always tilt his head back, hair a wild mess, eyes squeezed shut and lips up in a nasty grimace. 

'You know I  _can't,_ Damian. I- don't want to lose that feeling.' 

Damian remembers screaming into his pillow in fear, in agony, in  _frustration._ **His friend is dying and he can't do _anything._** No amount of money would waver Jonathan into doing something he doesn't want to. No doctors can cure the disease. His friend is dying and Damian has a front row seat to the show. 

There is a list the Wayne keeps, and he tears through names; desperately scrambling for his friend's love to be requited. The list is half-empty. The desperation grows stronger with each name he strikes off, and Damian can feel the acid building up in his throat as he sees Jon cough up three, four,  _five,_ petals. Jon merely laughs, stuffing them in his pocket like it was a normal thing. Damian's heart  _aches,_ his mind screams, and he bites back the venom in his mouth as Jon continues to talk about the day.

How could anyone  _not_ love Jonathan Kent? Damian swears to kill the boy responsible for his friend's deterioration when he finds him. A slow, painful death. And Damian will make sure that boy screams until the world hears him. Damian Wayne is very protective towards those he calls "friends and family". From the sidelines, Father and Clark are busying themselves, trying to use Kryptonian technology to sustain Jon, make sure he can live longer. The demons that haunt their eyes are evident, their shadows are longer and they look like death. Lois is doing her best to make sure that nothing else can happen to her boy. Her grip on Jon is fierce, the look in her eyes a mix of grief and determination. 

Damian suspects she's been through the same thing. 

And when Jon seemed to be improving, the effects of the Hanahaki disease dying down; the tint of pink that adorns the boy's tan cheeks, the life in his blue eyes returning, the aura of health he basks in, everything crumbles down into bits and pieces. 

Jon lied when he said he was fine. Jon lied when he said he got over his love. Jon lied when he told Damian that he won't die. Jon lied when he swore that Robin and Superboy would be the best of the best. Jon lied to his parents, to  _Father,_ when he faked his improving conditions. 

The petals were unstoppable. 

Damian sees the red cape of Superboy in front of him, sees the way Jon effortlessly discards his enemies, hears the endless banter between the both of them. He doesn't see Jon's movements slowing, doesn't see Jon wavering, doesn't see the petals and  _red,_ doesn't hear the harsh breathing and wheezing. 

He does not see Superboy fall from the sky, he doesn't see the red cape and "S" shield drop like a rock. He does not hear the shriek Nightwing gives off as Jon collapses.

Only when he turns around, he feels his whole body rushing to Jon. He thinks he shouts, he cannot remember what happens, but the vivid display of petals and the dark red that stretches out on the tar road holds his attention captive. There was _so much blood, so many petals._ His own breathing turns erratic, and he remembers lifting Jon the way Superman lifts Batman, and he remembers his face feeling wet and his vision blurring to a mass of colours behind his mask.

Then the beeps of the monitor, the hysterics of _Red Hood,_ the breakdown Superman has in the infirmary. Batman with his cowl off, eyes sunken and red, glassy. Damian does not leave the bedside, not even Pennyworth could move him. 

 _Is this what Jon felt,_ Damian ponders,  _when Luther was dying?_

A crushing ache twists in his heart, and Damian would do anything to trade Jon's pain with his life.  _Please,_ he begs to any god willing to listen,  _let him live._

But as the saying goes, heroes are never happy. 

Jonathan Kent dies three hours later, H.F Young Clematis petals awash in blood fill the infirmary. 

Damian shrieks, he screams and kicks up a huge fuss, swears to the high heavens and the deepest of hells, he shouts and he  _wails._ Nothing good can appear in Damian Wayne's life. In the background, the symbol of hope crumples, the greatest detective loses his calm, the strongest woman Damian has ever known breaks in sorrow, and Damian's own brothers weep with him. 

 

* * *

 

 

There is a crack on the wall when Jon had accidentally lost control of his super strength. There is a dorky Batman keychain hanging on his phone that Jon had insisted he used. There is a boy, lonely and lost, sitting in a room that makes his heart ache and burn. 

There is a list, with one name left. 

Damian stares,  _a slow and painful death indeed._

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you're happy, Nike.


End file.
